Evaluating Temperature Rate near the Wellbore Considering Slow Warm-Up Case for a Sagd Producer Well with Different Completion Configurations Using Dynamic Flow Simulations

Abstract

Abstract Temperature and pressure changes are drastic during the warm-up phase (steam circulation) of SAGD wells as a result of introducing heat to cold tubulars. These drastic changes will impact casings as well as cement. Impacts of circulation strategy (fast vs. slow warm-up) for 11 ¾ in. intermediate casing with dual parallel completion design, on cement and casing were investigated previously. Current work focused on analyzing the impact of slow warm-up on smaller intermediate casing size (9 5/8 in.) for dual parallel and single string completion designs, the second one with vacuum insulation tubing (VIT). The purpose of this paper is to complement the results of previous work in terms of using transient analysis to assess the impact of warm-up rates. The results of transient flow simulator data together with field data enable determining the effect of the warm-up period on different components of wellbore for different types of completions (small versus large wellbore, single versus dual string, uninsulated versus insulated tubing) from integrity perspective. In this study, the dynamic flow simulations indicated that time for steam to reach the toe was almost the same for the dual string and the single string with VIT. In addition, the single string with VIT design eliminated instabilities in operational parameters (e.g. pressure) observed in the case of dual string. However, the single string with VIT case indicated that the heating rate of cement between the intermediate and surface casing string is the highest.